WHEN THE WORLD ENDS

FLICKER

Madison Brooks sat on the floor of the toilet cubicle. Luckily, the floor wasn't dirty. A cleaner had come by just half an hour ago. Madison had waited until she had left, then run inside and shut herself off from the outside world inside her cubicle.

There was no noise except for her sobs and snots and dribbles that bounced off all the walls and found their way back to her ears. The lights were dim but they flickered every five minutes causing the little girl to look up in panic. When she realised they weren't going out, she would look back down and continue her whimpering.

She didn't like crying. Her mother had told her not to before she disappeared. Madison had tried asking everybody she could find if they knew where her mother was but nobody did. Not even the nurses or the doctors.

"Floor two. Ward C. Emergency unit" her mother had said to her before rushing off down the corridor and leaving Madison in the rest room.

Madison knew where her mother was. But she was just a nine year old and the confusing hospital signs and old, grumpy doctors scared her more than the monsters outside. When she couldn't find her way to floor two, or ward C, or the emergency unit, she had given up hope and resorted to the one thing that children did best...

Crying.

A loud noise distracted Madison and she snapped to her feet like a soldier being called to order. It sounded like the toilet door opening. Madison froze in complete terror for a few seconds. What if one of those monsters had got inside the hospital? But what if it was mummy?

Slowly, Madison edged forward nervously, opened the cubicle door and peered through the small gap she had created. She saw a woman. Quite tall. Slim. Brown hair. It looked like her mother, but it wasn't. The woman was wearing a hospital gown, which meant she was a patient.

Madison watched as the woman dashed for the nearest sink and hunched over it suddenly like something demented. She vomited into the sink. Three times. Madison just stood in the cubicle doorway and watched, too afraid to move or call out to the woman. Her mother always told her never to speak to strangers.

But Madison realised at that point that strangers were all she had. Her mother was gone and she didn't know when she would come back. Madison had no choice.

"Are you okay?" she called out delicately.

Rebecca nearly slipped on the tiled floor when she heard the tiny voice from behind her. She was convinced that she was alone and therefore nobody would witness her throwing up for the fifth time that day. She was obviously wrong.

She spun around just in time to see one of the cubicle doors slam shut and the lock to be twisted. Grabbing a few paper towels, she ran them quickly under the tap and wiped her mouth. She then bent down and drank some of the water, trying to wash the taste out of her mouth.

Who did the voice belong to? It was a girl. She sounded very young and Rebecca hoped that she wasn't another patient that had suffered some severe injury. She wasn't sure how much more trauma she could witness in one day. As she neared the cubicle, she heard little feet scurry backwards and then a panicked noise, like the person was clambering onto the toilet seat.

She reached the cubicle door and stopped in her tracks. She knocked on the door. There was no reply.

There was no reply because Madison Brooks was terrified for her own life. She was curled up on the toilet seat in the foetal position, staring at the cubicle door and shaking like a leaf. She closed her eyes and wished that her mother would get back soon.

"Hello?" Rebecca called out.

Still nothing.

"Open the door...please" Rebecca requested, sounding as friendly and motherly as she could.